Guiding qualified farmers to transfer their land is an important way to alleviate the problem of land abandonment, improve land use efficiency, and achieve moderately large-scale land management. Based on the dual perspectives of economic endowment and land endowment, this paper uses the 2015 data of the China Household Finance Survey (CHFS), using the semilogarithmic ordinary least-squares method and the logit model, to explore differences in land transfer decisions under the effect of farmer heterogeneity. The circulation trading market was further improved to provide a reference. The heterogeneity of economic endowment and land endowment significantly affects the decision-making behavior of farmers in transferring land. The higher the land endowment is, the greater the probability that farmers transfer the land out and successfully trade, and they are more inclined to transfer the cultivated land to cooperatives, village collectives, and other institutions through formal channels, leading to a higher unit income of the transfer. Further research shows that land endowment has no significant difference in the impact of land endowment on whether farmers with different livelihood endowments transfer their land, but under the same land endowment, farmers with economic endowment advantages are more able to use their own endowment advantages to transfer their land out through formal channels and obtain higher gains income. Therefore, focusing on improving the conditions of land resources and increasing the endowment of farmers are important means to promote successful transactions in the land transfer market, ensure its sustainable operation, and promote further increase in the income of transfer farmers.

We examined the associations between social capital and rural households’ perceptions toward social, economic, and environmental benefits of forest carbon sequestration projects by employing the proportional odds model based on data collected from a rural household survey in Sichuan and Yunnan Provinces, China. Results revealed that: (i) households’ perceptions toward environmental benefits are more positive than their perceptions toward economic benefits and social benefits, and their perceptions toward economic benefits are more positive than their perceptions toward social benefits; (ii) households having a good relationship with village officials have higher odds of holding more positive perceptions toward social, economic, and environmental benefits of the projects; (iii) households which are members of local associations are more likely to have positive perceptions toward benefits of the projects; (iv) households whose members are more frequently involved in village-level public events are more likely to have more positive perceptions toward benefits of the projects; (v) households having more educated household heads have higher odds of holding better perceptions toward the benefits of FCS projects; and (vi) households of Yunnan Province are less likely to express positive perceptions toward benefits of the projects. Based on the research results, we concluded that social capital is significantly and positively associated with rural households’ perceptions toward benefits of forest carbon sequestration projects. Some policy implications are provided regarding how to make use of social capital elements to shape farmers’ perceptions toward benefits of the projects for the purpose of achieving a higher level of local acceptability for and sustainability of the projects.

In the context of China’s forest rights reform, promoting forest land circulation is the key to revitalizing forest land resources and promoting the development of the forestry industry. Based on the theoretical analysis of the effect of farmers’ cognition on forest land transfer behavior, data from 790 farmers in typical areas of Chengdu were used for empirical testing with the binary logit model. At the same time, the effects of the cognitive differences of the farmers with different education levels on forest land circulation are discussed. Finally, appropriate instrumental variables were selected to modify the model, and the IV probit model was used to test the endogeneity of the model. The results showed that the (1) farmers’ cognition had a significant positive effect on the forest land transfer behavior. Among them, in the order of the degree of impact, were the following: ecological cognition, policy cognition, risk cognition, social regulation, and benefit cognition. (2) Among the groups with different education levels, farmers with lower education levels will consider more aspects than farmers with higher education levels when choosing to transfer forest land. By broadening the research into the cognitive composition of farmers, this study deepens our understanding of the influence of farmers’ cognition on forest land transfer behavior. Moreover, it is found that Chinese farmers have strong ecological rationality in addition to economic rationality, and ecological cognition plays a greater role in forest land transfer behavior than benefit cognition, which is of considerable significance for further research on forest land transfer behavior.